The Quest For The Griever Ch.2
by curbwakz
Summary: They begin to train...


  
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The Quest For The Griever (A Final Fantasy 8 Continuation)  
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All the Final Fantasy 8 original characters, places, and items in this story are copyright Squaresoft. All other characters are my works. Feel free to distribute this story as you like.  
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by: curbwakz Chapter 2 Released: 12/23/00  
  
As Rinoa woke up from her quite restful sleep. She turned over to see Squall but found nothing. As she sat up, she saw Squall standing in front of the closet about to pull something out until he turned and saw her awake.  
  
"Good morning" Rinoa said yawning.  
  
"...You too..." Squall said as he turned back to the closet and pulled out the Lionheart.  
  
"You're going to use that again?" Rinoa asked. "I thought you decided to use the flame saber from now on."  
  
"...Yeah...but something tells me this trip to Timber is going to need more than a middle class weapon. I figured I could probably start using this again." Squall replied as he blew dust off the blade and barrel and felt it for nicks.  
  
"I think you're getting a bit carried away, but I trust your instincts." Rinoa said as she got up, grabbed a towel and turned on the shower.  
  
Squall actually showed a small smile at hearing the word "trust", but then went right back to his expressionless face.  
  
"I'm going to go ahead and head down to the training center" Squall spoke after fixing his scraggly hair and sheathing his Lionheart.  
  
"Skipping breakfast?"  
  
"Yeah, I'll eat later" he said as he walked out to the hall.  
  
(Just like Squall. Always getting straight to the point) Rinoa thought.  
  
As Squall walked down the main area of Garden, he ran into Xu.  
  
"Hey Squall!" she said as he seemingly did not notice her for a second.  
  
"...Oh, hey..."  
  
"I've filed all the reports we have gotten to date, so you have nothing to worry about when you get back from Timber."  
  
"...Thanks..." Squall said as he showed no enthusiasm.  
  
"Oh, I got some new cards I want to try out. Are you in the mood?" Xu said, trying to get him out of his zombie-like state.  
  
(...Cards?...I guess I have time for one...)  
  
"I guess" Squall said as he reached to his back pocket to get his cards.  
  
Overall, Xu gave him a very good game. She had gotten the Diablos card recently and used it quite well. Yet, she was still no match for his level 10 Squall and Edea cards. After he won, he let her keep the Diablos card.  
  
"Thanks Squall!" Xu said  
  
"...Don't mention it." he said as he continued toward the Training Center.  
  
(Geez...won't she ever stop hitting me with Blizzagas?)   
  
Zell was extremely tired as he cast Reflect on himself. Quistis had been tiring him out for the past fifteen minutes since they had come. Quistis quickly used Dispel on Zell's Reflect and hit him as he began to summon Ifrit. After Zell had finished with Ifrit, he and Quistis decided to take a break.  
  
"You really wore me out" Zell said as he squatted on his knees catching some air.  
  
"Same to me." Quistis said, yet she certainly didn't show many signs of wear.  
  
Just then, they noticed Squall walking up the path with the Lionheart.  
  
"Yo, Squall!" Zell said as he got back up.  
  
"Hey Squall." Quistis added.  
  
"Hey guys. Warmed up yet?" he asked.  
  
"Hell yeah!" Zell exclaimed as if he had never fought the previous battle with Quistis.  
  
"Sure." Quistis said less enthusiastically.  
  
"What's up with the Lionheart? I thought you used the flame saber these days since Ultimecia?" Zell questioned.  
  
"...I have a hunch that we might be going up against something that requires better equipment." Squall replied.  
  
"Whatever, man. Let's get ready to RUMBLE!" Zell shouted as he charged toward Squall. Squall quickly blocked his punches with the side of his blade and brought the sword down above Zell's head, of course, he wouldn't actually hit him with the blade, just the side of it.  
  
(Let's just see what all these years of shadow boxing has done for him) Squall thought as it continued it's way down.  
  
Zell quickly dodged the blade and landed a punch right in Squall's rib.  
  
(Hmmm...impressive)  
  
Quistis then ran in and began to whip Zell up a little bit. Squall stood back for a second to keep it fair. After Zell had backed away from Quistis, Squall got back into action with the Lionheart. He quickly blocked all of Quistis' attempts at whipping and finally cast a Firaga spell on her. After she took the heat, everyone noticed Rinoa step into the area.  
  
"I see you guys have already gotten into action." she said as she put on her blade.  
  
"Let's see if we can find some T-Rexaurs" Squall said as they walked further into the center.  
  
Sure enough, they eventually found one. Quistis kept them all protected using Protects and boosted their magic with some Triples. Squall used the Lionheart just as he had so long ago, swinging it wildly yet gracefully as he let out hard, physical attacks. Zell charged up Diablos while Quistis charged up Shiva. As Squall continued to let out huge swipes of the Lionheart, And Rinoa continued swiping with him, the T-Rexaur smacked Squall super hard with his tail and he fell to one knee. Zell finally let out Diablos and boosted him to 175 as he pumped a huge black ball into the T-Rexaur. However, it wasn't enough to finish him.  
  
(...This is a pretty strong T-Rexaur...) Squall said to himself as he began to charge his limit break.  
  
Quistis pumped Shiva to 165 and froze him. It really hurt the T-Rexaur, yet somehow, it didn't quite finish it off yet.  
  
"RENZOKUKEN!!!!" Squall yelled as he swung his gunblade and ran towards the T-Rexaur with full force. He slashed him harder than hell and used the finishing move that he hadn't used since Ultimecia.  
  
(Whoa...Squall's beating it like a pancake!) Zell thought to himself.  
  
"LIONHEART!!!!" he yelled as he let out an even huger hurry of swipes until there was nothing left of the monster except bloody flesh and bone.  
  
Everyone stood astonished at Squall's huge display and Quistis even managed to clap a little bit.  
  
"Man, Squall! I haven't seen that side of you for a while!" Zell said.  
  
"Thanks guys, but I'm really hungry since I didn't have breakfast. Do you want to grab some food at the cafeteria?" Squall asked.  
  
"Yeah! I hope they haven't run out of hot dogs yet!" Zell answered as he let his stomach lead the others out of the training center.  
  
  
As Quistis, Rinoa, Zell, and Squall sat in the cafeteria eating the day's special, (and Zell grubbing down some hot dogs), they talked about each others GF's.  
  
"Ahh, I think Ifrit is the best!" Zell exclaimed  
  
"No way, Zell!" Quistis opposed. "Eden is the most powerful of all!"  
  
Zell had been shot down and he knew it. He sat quietly for a moment before another voice interrupted the silence.  
  
"...Actually..." Squall spoke. "Griever is the ultimate..."  
  
"But Griever is dead, Squall." Quistis said. "Griever was taken out when we defeated Ultimecia."  
  
(...She had a point there...)  
  
Another moment of silence held in the air until Squall spoke again.  
  
"...Haven't you ever thought of the fact that Griever may not be dead?" Squall asked with a peculiar eye.  
  
"No actually I haven't and I never will. We all saw him go down with our own eyes." Quistis shot back.  
  
"...You really don't understand do you?" Squall said quite insultingly. "Just because you've killed something once doesn't mean it still doesn't have it's species."  
  
Squall let it linger around the table, then continued.  
  
"...It's just like when we had to keep on killing those damn Bite Bugs...Just because we killed it once doesn't mean we killed the whole species...We had to fight tons of them..."  
  
Indeed, he had a point that no one had ever thought to look into. The silence remained at the table until Rinoa spoke up.  
  
"Don't you guys think we should get back to training?" she asked, trying to get rid of the atmosphere.  
  
"Right!" Zell said as the rest of the group got up and began walking back to the Training Center.  
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The rest of the battles the heroes fought that day were all small ones. They each gained a few more levels and got used to fighting like the old times. Rinoa handled them all quite well, making good use of the small sorceress power within her. Quistis and Zell also held their own against some of the weird plant monsters they found. But Squall handled them all as if they were nothing, sometimes even inflicting lethal damage in one swipe of the Lionheart.  
  
After about another 3 hours of training, Quistis finally spoke.  
  
"I think I'm calling it a day." she said.  
  
"Agreed" they all said in unison.  
  
"We all need a good night's sleep" Squall said. Tommorow, we leave.  
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Expect more action soon to come! I'm just setting everything up. Until next chapter... -curbwakz  



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